Facebook is slated to change its name to execute CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s goal of initiating a “metaverse”. This is big news because re-naming a tech giant is pretty rare.
According to Alex Heath from The Verge, the rebranding of Facebook ”“ the tech giant that owns the Facebook social networking platform as well as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus ”“ will happen as soon as next week during the company’s Connect Conference on Thursday, October 28th:
“The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th, but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail. The rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and more. A spokesperson for Facebook declined to comment for this story.”
The new name for Facebook is unknown, the report claims that even the high-ranking officials from Facebook are not aware of the new brand, but are expecting that the name could involve the word “Horizon”:
“I’m told that the new Facebook company name is a closely-guarded secret within its walls and not known widely, even among its full senior leadership. A possible name could have something to do with Horizon, the name of the still-unreleased VR version of Facebook-meets-Roblox that the company has been developing for the past few years.”
Also the in the report, Facebook’s CEO Zuckerberg wants to change people’s attitudes over Facebook, to transition it into a “metaverse company” and not just a social networking company. Facebook owns three social media apps and one VR technology company.
The company rebranding is a way to move the company from its critical reception following a Facebook whistleblower who leaked internal documents from the company:
“A rebrand could also serve to further separate the futuristic work Zuckerberg is focused on from the intense scrutiny Facebook is currently under for the way its social platform operates today. A former employee turned whistleblower, Frances Haugen, recently leaked a trove of damning internal documents to The Wall Street Journal and testified about them before Congress.”
It looks like Facebook has reached a forked path, and with the new rebranding, the company will either move to the good road or the bad road. It is only a matter of time until we see how the company will look like amid security scandals, shutdowns, and privacy issues.
